County fears absorbing Medicare costs

Monday

Mar 18, 2013 at 3:15 AM

By Andrea Bulfinchabulfinch@fosters.com

DOVER — County commissioners shared Thursday morning their concern over a potential downshifting in Medicare costs from the state that would result in an estimated $350 million to $500 million in additional costs to the county.

Commissioner Chairman George Maglaras said commissioners are currently analyzing the impact of this potential burden.

“The commission is very concerned about this,” he said.

To that end, a letter to the county delegation is being drafted to express that concern.

It won’t be until June that the county will know for sure what, if any, amount will be pushed down from the state and the trouble with that, commissioners said, is that, at that point, they will be halfway through their operating budget.

Commissioner Leo Lessard said this pushdown has been transpiring over the last decade or so.

“I think it was appropriate of the board of commissioners to tell the delegation what the impact will be this coming year,” he said.

If this trend continues, Maglaras said, cities and towns affected will have to do something to counter the effect.

The effect would be felt in Dover, for example, with a six to eight percent tax hike.

“At some point the legislation needs to hear that the taxpayers can’t bear the increase,” Lessard said. Maglaras said if this downshifting materializes, things cannot proceed as “business as usual.”

The 2.4 percent increase in this years’ budget pointed to years of making hard decisions, Lessard said, crediting commissioners with keeping any financial impact on taxpayers at a minimum.

Maglaras said when residents voted in favor of implementing a tax cap, it was in an effort to “do something about what government is doing to us,” he said.

“I think the public was right in their decision they made,” he said.

But, he added, governments, in general, are slow to change.

“Governments have not done enough to change what they’re doing,” he said.